Swindle, Keitel Holta | Hackers stole millions from Holta Corporation

Employees at one of Kjetil Holta’s companies were tricked into paying nearly NOK 4.5 million.

According to the newspaper, Chemalloy in the United States suffered a data breach. It is a subsidiary of the Metal Powder Group, which is wholly owned by the Notodden financier.

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Internal emails

The fraud occurred via three internal emails. In the three, which appear to have come from the company’s chief financial officer, the accounting department paid about NOK 4.5 million in three installments to an account set up by criminals, according to Finansavisen.

This happened over ten days in April of last year. The fraud is being investigated by the FBI.

“We don’t know the status of the FBI investigation right now, but we haven’t been told that anyone has been arrested or charged in the case,” Per Engdahl, CEO of Metal Powder Group, says. Newspaper.

When asked if they got any of the $445,000 they were defrauded of, he replied that they were gone, but got something back on insurance.

A good routine is important

Kjetil Holta tells Finansavisen that Engdahl will answer in the case, but gives the following comment to the newspaper:

“From my perspective as an owner, the most important thing going forward is to put in place routines that ensure such incidents don’t happen again,” says Holta.

According to Finansavisen, the fraud occurred while many of them had home offices during the pandemic, and companies have revised their IT security and procedures since then.